An audit of the Gainesville District Volunteer Fire and Rescue uncovered a pretty shocking finding among a trove of issues according to reports on WMAL this afternoon: that Chief Richard Bird had moved his family into the firehouse several years ago and was essentially living rent-free in a county facility. Needless to say, the Board of County Supervisors was mighty displeased with this, and the District has been taken over by the county’s professional firefighters and will be reorganized. A good move, even if it’s overdue.
The Gainesville Times describes an organization in complete disarray that can’t explain how they’ve spent their money, why they’ve taken various personnel actions, or what standards they maintain. It’s a hugely disturbing picture that even County Executive Craig Gerhart could recognize.
Gerhart said after the meeting that the auditor had asked simple questions and requested standard documents. That the leadership was unwilling or unable to provide them was the first strike, he said, adding that “the financial operation was a mess.”
On top of that, he continued, the station has some long-standing issues with safety and that its own safety policies and procedures were “held in total disregard.”
Then there’s the “breakdown in communications” between McGee and the station and McGee’s assertion that he has “lost confidence in the leadership” in Gainesville.
“You put all of these things together and the conclusion I think, is it’s not working,” Gerhart said.
I’m hopeful that other volunteer fire districts are doing a vastly better job and will remain as volunteer stations, albeit with some changes. When run well, they provide tremendous service while operating at lower cost than professionally-staffed stations. We need both fill-time and volunteer fire and rescue stations, and we need them to both operate well and efficiently. The lessons learned from this disaster may help integrate the leadership of the professional and volunteer organizations, strengthen oversight, and ensure we have strong and dependable firefighting organizations well into the future.
In order to make that happen, we have to figure out what brought this mess on, and ensure it is never repeated.
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